According to the CSO, GDP grew by 0.3% in Q3 this year so technically Brian Lenihan was correct when he said we had turned the corner and were on the road to recovery again. Of course, if we're on a double dip, then come April we could be back in recession if Q4 09 and Q1 2010 report further contraction of GDP.
As someone who knows next to nothing about economics, I've often wondered if GDP is a useful figure to determine recessions, depressions and booms. It seems like a very unwieldy stick in a field where a certain amount of finesse is required. Also in a small, open economy *DRINK* like ours, GNP might actually be a better measure of the state of play as it would ignore the impact of companies like Microsoft or Intel who could decide to book a lot of business in a quarter which would have a large impact on Irish GDP.
Either which way, this news won't be much comfort to those who are out of work and facing benefit cuts in January. They're still going to find it tough going even if the economic indicators are showing a recovery.
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